U.N. Rio Conference To Discuss Taxing Rich Countries

The main goal of the much-touted, Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, scheduled to be held in Brazil from June 20-23, and which Obama Administration officials have supported, is to make dramatic and enormously expensive changes in the way that the world does nearly everythingâor, as one of the documents puts it, "a fundamental shift in the way we think and act."

Among the proposals on how the âchallenges can and must be addressed,â according to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

--More than $2.1 trillion a year in wealth transfers from rich countries to poorer ones, in the name of fostering âgreen infrastructure, â âclimate adaptationâ and other âgreen economyâ measures.

--New carbon taxes for industrialized countries that could cost about $250 billion a year, or 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product, by 2020. Other environmental taxes are mentioned, but not specified.

--Further unspecified price hikes that extend beyond fossil fuels to anything derived from agriculture, fisheries, forestry, or other kinds of land and water use, all of which would be radically reorganized. These cost changes would âcontribute to a more level playing field between established, 'brown' technologies and newer, greener ones."

-- Major global social spending programs, including a "social protection floor" and "social safety nets" for the world's most vulnerable social groups for reasons of âequity.â

--Even more social benefits for those displaced by the green economy revolutionâincluding those put out of work in undesirable fossil fuel industries. The benefits, called âinvestments,â would include âaccess to nutritious food, health services, education, training and retraining, and unemployment benefits."

--A guarantee that if those sweeping benefits werenât enough, more would be granted. As one of the U.N. documents puts it: âAny adverse effects of changes in prices of goods and services vital to the welfare of vulnerable groups must be compensated for and new livelihood opportunities provided."